Climate risk and vulnerabilities of Malaysia

Malaysia is exposed to a complex climate and multi-hazard risk profile shaped by its tropical monsoon climate, long coastline, low-lying coastal and riverine settlements, rapidly urbanizing areas, steep highlands, extensive forests and peatlands, and dependence on climate-sensitive sectors such as water, agriculture, fisheries, infrastructure, tourism, energy, biodiversity, and public health. Key hazards include monsoon floods, flash floods, riverine flooding, landslides, coastal flooding, sea-level rise, coastal erosion, drought, heat stress, haze, forest and peat fires, storms, water pollution, and localized seismic/tsunami exposure. UNDRR notes that Malaysia is frequently affected by floods, droughts, landslides, possible tsunamis, anthropogenic hazards, and epidemics. (UNDRR)

Malaysia is highly exposed and vulnerable to climate change and multi-hazard risks due to its tropical monsoon climate, extensive coastlines, low-lying coastal settlements, exposed river basins, rapidly urbanizing areas, highland slopes, peatlands, forests, and climate-sensitive economic sectors. The country faces recurrent risks from monsoon floods, flash floods, riverine flooding, landslides, coastal flooding, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, droughts, heat stress, haze, forest and peat fires, water stress, and climate-sensitive health impacts. Climate change is expected to intensify these vulnerabilities through heavier rainfall, more frequent extreme-weather events, rising temperatures, sea-level rise, coastal inundation, water-security stress, ecosystem degradation, and growing risks to agriculture, infrastructure, cities, public health, biodiversity, tourism, and vulnerable communities. Strengthening multi-hazard early warning systems, impact-based forecasting, flood and landslide risk reduction, coastal adaptation, urban drainage, climate-resilient agriculture, water security, heat-health planning, haze and peat-fire management, disaster risk financing, and locally led adaptation is essential to reduce losses and protect Malaysia’s development gains.

1. Multi-hazard exposure

Malaysia’s main climate-related disaster risks are floods and landslides, especially during the northeast and southwest monsoon seasons and during localized convective storms. Flooding affects river basins, low-lying urban areas, coastal communities, transport corridors, agricultural land, and public infrastructure. Landslides are common where intense rainfall interacts with steep slopes, road cutting, hillside development, deforestation, and weak drainage systems.

Malaysia’s climate-risk profile also includes droughts, heatwaves, sea-level rise, coastal erosion, forest fires, haze, water pollution, and ecosystem degradation. Malaysia’s National Policy on Climate Change 2.0 identifies floods, droughts, heatwaves, sea-level rise, and related climate hazards as important adaptation concerns. (Natural Resources Ministry)

2. Flood and landslide vulnerability

Flooding is Malaysia’s most recurrent and damaging climate hazard. Monsoon floods affect states such as Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Perak, Selangor, Sabah, and Sarawak, while flash floods increasingly affect urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley, Shah Alam, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, and other rapidly growing cities.

Flood vulnerability is driven by:

Driver	Risk implication
Intense monsoon rainfall	River overflow, flash floods, drainage congestion
Urban expansion	More impermeable surfaces, reduced infiltration, higher runoff
Drainage blockage	Localized flooding, traffic disruption, public-health risks
Settlement in floodplains	Housing damage, displacement, livelihood disruption
Degraded catchments	Higher runoff, erosion, sedimentation, slope instability
Climate change	More intense rainfall and greater flood uncertainty

Landslides are especially important in highland areas, hill-slope settlements, road corridors, construction zones, and areas affected by deforestation or slope modification. Heavy rainfall can trigger slope failure, road blockage, infrastructure damage, fatalities, and isolation of communities.

3. Coastal vulnerability and sea-level rise

Malaysia has extensive coastal exposure across Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak. Coastal areas face sea-level rise, coastal erosion, tidal flooding, storm surge, saltwater intrusion, mangrove degradation, port exposure, and damage to coastal settlements and tourism assets.

The World Bank/ADB climate risk profile for Malaysia projects that, under a high-emissions pathway, up to 234,500 people in Malaysia could be exposed to flooding from sea-level rise by 2070–2100. (Climate Change Knowledge Portal) NAHRIM’s sea-level-rise assessment also highlights that Malaysia’s low-lying coastal and river-estuary areas are particularly at risk, with projected sea-level rise varying across Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak, and Sabah coastlines by 2100. (Nahrim)

4. Drought, heat, haze, and water-security vulnerability

Although Malaysia is generally humid and rainfall-rich, drought and water stress remain important risks, especially during El Niño periods and in areas dependent on reservoirs, river intakes, irrigation systems, or shallow groundwater. Drought can affect water supply, agriculture, hydropower, ecosystems, public health, and industrial activity.

Heat stress is becoming more important for public health, labour productivity, outdoor workers, urban residents, agriculture, and electricity demand. Urban heat-island effects can intensify heat exposure in dense cities.

Haze and forest/peat fires are also significant environmental and health risks. Fire and haze can affect air quality, respiratory health, schools, transport, tourism, agriculture, and business continuity, especially when dry conditions combine with land-use pressure and peatland degradation.

5. Sector-specific vulnerability summary

Sector	Main climate and multi-hazard risks
Water resources	Drought, flood contamination, sedimentation, reduced water quality, reservoir stress
Agriculture and food security	Floods, drought, heat stress, pests, crop losses, irrigation stress, soil erosion
Coastal zones	Sea-level rise, coastal erosion, tidal flooding, saltwater intrusion, mangrove loss
Urban settlements	Flash flooding, drainage failure, heat stress, landslides, traffic and service disruption
Transport infrastructure	Road flooding, slope failure, bridge damage, port and coastal asset exposure
Tourism	Coastal erosion, haze, storms, flooding, biodiversity and reef degradation
Forests and biodiversity	Forest fires, peat fires, habitat degradation, invasive species, ecosystem stress
Public health	Heat illness, respiratory impacts from haze, waterborne disease after floods, dengue risk
Energy and industry	Water-supply disruption, flood damage, heat-related demand stress, supply-chain disruption

Malaysia’s emerging National Adaptation Plan process identifies five priority climate-sensitive sectors: water and coastal resources, agriculture and food security, infrastructure and cities including energy, forestry and biodiversity, and public health. The MyNAP is expected to provide a coherent national framework for adaptation by the end of 2026. (NAP Global Network)

6. Social vulnerability

The most vulnerable groups include low-income urban households, informal settlers, rural communities, Indigenous peoples, coastal communities, smallholder farmers, fishers, elderly people, children, people with disabilities, outdoor workers, and communities living in flood-prone, landslide-prone, coastal, drought-prone, or haze-affected areas.

Vulnerability is highest where climate exposure overlaps with weak housing, limited savings, poor drainage, insecure tenure, limited insurance coverage, restricted mobility, and weak access to timely warnings and recovery support. The MyNAP process explicitly recognizes intersectional vulnerabilities shaped by gender, age, socio-economic status, background, and ethnicity. (NAP Global Network)

7. Priority resilience needs

Malaysia’s resilience agenda should prioritize multi-hazard early warning systems, impact-based forecasting, flood and landslide risk mapping, urban drainage upgrading, coastal-zone management, sea-level-rise monitoring, drought monitoring, heat-health planning, haze and peat-fire risk reduction, climate-resilient agriculture, resilient infrastructure, ecosystem-based adaptation, disaster risk financing, and locally led adaptation.

A practical resilience package for Malaysia should include:

Priority area	Key actions
Early warning and anticipatory action	Impact-based warnings for floods, landslides, heat, drought, haze, storms, and coastal flooding
Flood-risk management	River-basin forecasting, drainage upgrading, retention ponds, floodplain zoning, community preparedness
Landslide risk reduction	Slope monitoring, hazard mapping, drainage control, safe hillside development, road stabilization
Coastal resilience	Mangrove restoration, coastal setback planning, erosion control, sea-level-rise monitoring
Urban resilience	Stormwater management, blue-green infrastructure, heat-risk planning, risk-informed land-use planning
Agriculture and food security	Climate advisories, flood- and drought-resilient crops, irrigation efficiency, crop insurance
Water security	Drought planning, reservoir management, water-quality protection, catchment restoration
Health resilience	Heat-health action plans, dengue surveillance, haze preparedness, flood-safe WASH systems
Risk governance and financing	Adaptation finance, climate-risk screening of public investment, insurance, contingency financing

National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA)

HISTORY OF ESTABLISHMENT

Following the major flood disaster that occurred during the 2014/2015 Northeast Monsoon (MTL), the Cabinet in its meeting on 26 August 2015 agreed to the establishment of the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) to take over the role of the main lead agency for disaster management from the National Security Council, Prime Minister’s Department (MKN, JPM) at the national, regional and international levels.

The Cabinet Decision has clearly empowered NADMA ( https://www.nadma.gov.my ) as the main lead agency to carry out any obligations stipulated to ensure that disaster management and disaster risk reduction are handled in an integrated manner by all agencies at every level more efficiently and effectively.

Following the increasingly severe disaster scenario, human activities and the risk of new emerging threats. The MKN meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister on 1 August 2024, agreed to cancel MKN Directive No. 20 and replace it with one (1) new directive known as NADMA Directive No. 1: National Disaster Management Policy and Mechanism.

This NADMA Directive No. 1 is formulated in accordance with the decisions of the Cabinet, current changes, patterns, and complexity of disaster events at this time. This Directive outlines the mechanism for disaster management and disaster risk reduction more comprehensively. Each agency involved in disaster management and disaster risk reduction at every level is responsible for carrying out its respective roles in accordance with this Directive. This Directive will also be able to avoid any waste, confusion, conflict, contradiction, or duplication of roles when dealing with disasters.

The main focus of disaster management is towards comprehensive and continuous disaster risk reduction through prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and disaster recovery programs. This effort is in line with initiatives undertaken at the regional and international levels. This directive is intended to serve as a guide for all parties to manage disasters more efficiently and effectively.

Thanks to the National Disaster Command Center (NDCC) for running the geoportal on event situation update at https://portalbencana.nadma.gov.my/ms/

Some useful documents on Malaysia

Malaysia National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) and its philosophy, Mr. Zainal Azman Bin Abu Seman, Deputy Director General, NADMA Download

To access all documents given snapshots, please click the Google Drive link……………..

Malaysia